Dual Radiation Targeting System

A UB medical student and professor collaborated to invent a
technology that today is used worldwide to increase surgical
accuracy while reducing radiation exposure in the operating
room.

In years past, accurate percutaneous placement of rods and
screws in bone was a common problem for orthopedic surgeons, as was
the risk of excessive radiation exposure to patient and surgeon
during such image-guided procedures.

The solution to this set of problems was found at the point of a laser beam.

Even with multiple X-ray images, the methodology involved a
trial-and-error approach with no guarantee of precision. Repeated
attempts to place screws accurately resulted in a myriad of
potential complications for the patient, including increased risk
of postoperative secondary fracture and the need for additional
operations.

The solution to this set of problems was found at the point of a
laser beam by Michael K. Landi, MD, while he was a medical student
at UB in the early 1990s, and Robert Lifeso, MD, clinical professor
of orthopaedics.

Their invention, called the DRTS™ Platform (Dual Radiation
Targeting System), is a laser targeting system for fluoroscopically
guided procedures. It allows the surgeon to use a fluoroscope to
visualize and locate a deep structure, turn off the X-ray
radiation, and still have accurate guidance and position
information to complete the procedure. In addition to increasing
surgical accuracy, the system significantly reduces time in the
operating room, as well as radiation exposure for operating room
personnel and patients.

Although designed originally for use in the orthopedic field, the
innovative system has broad applications across many other
specialties, including oncology and neurology. For example, it is
ideal for performing minimally invasive deep-tissue biopsies done
on breasts, livers or spleens. The system also helps reduce the
patient’s discomfort, says Landi, “because you can hit
the target on your first attempt without having to manipulate the
needle under fluroroscopy, something that can be especially painful
during bone or vertebral biopsies.”

The DRTS™ Platform received Food and Drug Administration
approval in September 1997. Today it is manufactured by MINRAD
International, Inc. in Orchard Park, New York, and distributed
worldwide under the brand name MINRAD Targeting System.

Suzanne
Laychock, PhD, is investigating the cellular mechanisms
regulating insulin secretion in pancreatic cells. Her group has
used pancreatic cells in primary culture to develop in vitro
systems that mimic aspects of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Daniel
Kosman, PhD, studies how organisms acquire and metabolize iron
and copper, intrinsically toxic metals essential to cellular
respiration and oxygen transport. One of his goals is to develop
antifungal drugs to treat infections in humans.

Michael
Garrick, PhD, identified the first protein essential for normal
intestinal iron absorption and the first mammalian iron transporter
to be characterized at the molecular level. His work provides a
major step forward in the understanding of iron metabolism.

Rajendram
Rajnarayanan, PhD, studies interactomes of the human estrogen
receptor, which is expressed in 70 percent of breast cancers. His
lab seeks to design molecules to improve the effects of
tamoxifen, a drug commonly prescribed to treat breast cancer.

James
R. Olson, PhD, has traveled to Egypt to work with cotton
laborers exposed to pesticides. His research links genetics, an
individual’s degree of exposure to pesticides and effects on
health, seeking to improve workplace and environmental health
worldwide.

Thomas
Russo, MD, is internationally known for his work with strains
of E. coli that cause infections outside the intestine and result
in morbidity worldwide due to pneumonia, urinary tract infections
and meningitis.

Te-Chung
Lee, PhD, demonstrated for the first time, in an animal model,
that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle
can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure. He and his team
showed that this non-invasive procedure increased heart cells
two-fold.

Mulchand
Patel, PhD, is a specialist in nutritional biochemistry. He
found that fetuses of obese mother rats were programmed in utero to
develop obesity in adulthood, and was the first to show that this
metabolic programming occurs in the fetal hypothalamus.

Gabriela
Popescu, PhD, is studying NMDA receptors in the brain, which
are involved in synaptic development, plasticity, memory and
learning, as well as in pathologies such as stroke,
neurodegeneration, chronic pain, addiction, schizophrenia and
epilepsy.